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New Mexico Bingo

New Mexico has a bitter gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the task force came to an accord with two prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Indian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Native bands, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger from 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game providers acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.

Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a slice of the action. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gaming as a hot button factor like they did in the 1990’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.

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